Colts Practice Squad Signings

[rm1369]

Originally Posted by Oldcolt

I agree with the sentiment that Ballard has done a lousy job of building a team, so far. I add so far because there are a ton of high upside guys that are starting their 2-4th year. If he hits on Dayo and Paye (a distinct possibility still-Dayo is 3 years from Achilles and should have his explosion back and Paye started to come on last year before his injury), hits on Raiman and AR then my ragging on Ballard would be bullshit (and I hope I get to eat that crow). As we sit here at this moment those players just have potential. I think this is a huge year for Ballard, some of these guys need to live up to their potential or Irsay will have some tough decisions to make.

Agreed. Hell the reality is if he just hits on AR he has probably bought himself another 4 years. But Raimann, Paye, and Dayo could really change the equation. I obviously hope they all do. I still have concerns about the methods though. There is a decent amount I like about Ballard and I would be happy if I felt he was growing into the position. As IndyNorm has said, I see no changes that indicate he has learned anything. I’ve heard the words, but no change in action. Some, including Chrome, have suggested Ballard will be different once his QB is in place. We’ll see. I’m assuming that won’t start until AR has proven he’s the guy because this offseason was the same Ballard we’ve seen for 6 years.

[Racehorse]

Originally Posted by ChoppedWood

No, it's true. He has hit on some individual players but in total his model to build a team, has not produced results that translate to team success.

This isn't just some 1070 The Fan thing. I was just driving and one of the national shows was on (think it was the Spain and Fitz show), doing their run down of team predictions. They predicted us with 3 wins saying the roster is filled with holes and we may challenge AZ for the worst record this year. The summary statement- how can a GM be allowed to blame the retirement of a QB for the rest of the team being bad 5 years later and that's just acceptable as an excuse, and they laughed as they moved on. It's true. This team is not bad because Andrew Luck retired, this team is bad because the GM has not built a roster to compete in the modern day NFL.

AR and Steichen likely represent a transition into modern day football, which is great, but going into this season, this roster is not good and Ballard, via draft and FA, is the one that is responsible for that.

Well, if you think we will get the second pick in the draft, then you would agree with those guys. I think we are going to do much better than that.

[ukcolt]

We have a lot of young guys, who may very well flourish this year with the added experience. Are they unproven, or lacking experience sure, but the likes of Pierce, Woods, Ogletree, Gransen, Raimann on offense will hopefully grow together and form a potent nucleus on offense. If you then add in Richardson, Downs and who knows, Taylor, then suddenly in a years time, we might be thinking very differently about the quality of this roster.

On defense as has been said, Paye, Dayo have shown flashes, our LB's are already proven to have some ability, and experience. The DB's are what scare me, especially at CB. Outside of Kenny Moore, there is literally no experience at all of any note. The safeties, are young, but have some experience and room to continue to develop.

I don't think that this roster is devoid of talent by any stretch of the imagination, are they young and experienced, yeah they are, but there are a lot of high round selections, that most have generally been happy with over the last two or three years in the draft.

Biggest areas of concern for the 23 season for me are, the protection of our QB, is Raimann going to make the sophomore leap, and will the rest of the line come to play at the levels their talents have previously shown them to be capable of? Depth is of huge concern. How rough are the bumps in the road going to be for the rookie QB? I am reasonably content we will be ok in the passing game and in stopping the run, Richardson should help our own running game to at least appear to get a lot of yards, even if not through the RB's necessarily. It is the back end coverage i am most worried about and i can see us giving up a ton of passing yardage with long TD's due to broken coverages, because the guys just aren't experienced enough, and maybe in some instances, are not talented enough to match up with the starting WR's of the NFL.

[rm1369]

Originally Posted by ukcolt

The DB's are what scare me, especially at CB. Outside of Kenny Moore, there is literally no experience at all of any note….

I don't think that this roster is devoid of talent by any stretch of the imagination…

Biggest areas of concern for the 23 season for me are, the protection of our QB, is Raimann going to make the sophomore leap, and will the rest of the line come to play at the levels their talents have previously shown them to be capable of? Depth is of huge concern. How rough are the bumps in the road going to be for the rookie QB? I am reasonably content we will be ok in the passing game and in stopping the run, Richardson should help our own running game to at least appear to get a lot of yards, even if not through the RB's necessarily. It is the back end coverage i am most worried about and i can see us giving up a ton of passing yardage with long TD's due to broken coverages, because the guys just aren't experienced enough, and maybe in some instances, are not talented enough to match up with the starting WR's of the NFL.

I agree the team isn’t devoid of talent, it just has no proven talent in the most important positions. You can give Ballard a pass at QB, but IMO you shouldn’t at the other positions. Paye and Dayo have room to grow, but so did Lewis and Turay. I’m hopeful, but realistic. Every team thinks their young guys are going to flourish and Ballard has done a good job of feeding the fans young guys to be hopeful about. He’s done it at the expense of fielding better teams. Your two primary concerns are great examples - OL depth and CB. OL depth has been talked to death and several people will say it’s an impossible task to have anything better than they do. However the same can’t be said for CB. There were constantly articles showing the vets that were available. Yes, guys that are JAGs. But vets who know the league. Ballard would rather throw a bunch or rookies, UDFAs, and 2nd year nobodies at the issue and see what sticks. And if one of those guys becomes a rotational player Ballard will be talked about as a genius. In the meantime the lack of experience is going to cost the team games and everyone knows it. If it is because you are in rebuilding mode then fine. I don’t like it but OK. The problem is that means we’ve been in rebuilding mode for 6 damn years, because this is always what Ballard has done. So why ever trade for a 73 yr old QB during a rebuilding year? And why the hell is the team not better set at any of the key positions after so many years of “building” and not winning?

[rm1369]

Originally Posted by Racehorse

Well, if you think we will get the second pick in the draft, then you would agree with those guys. I think we are going to do much better than that.

If things go well in a couple areas then you could be right. Wouldn’t that make what the team has at CB and OL depth that much worse? I don’t understand how you can believe this will be a decent team AND be happy with some of the roster decisions.

[Oldcolt]

I am unhappy with a ton of moves but think we can still be a decent team. It hangs on Steichen/AR to me. It Steichen is the real deal and AR progresses like I personally believe he will, we can win this lousy division

[Racehorse]

Originally Posted by rm1369

If things go well in a couple areas then you could be right. Wouldn’t that make what the team has at CB and OL depth that much worse? I don’t understand how you can believe this will be a decent team AND be happy with some of the roster decisions.

No fan of any team is totally happy about all the moves made by their team. I know you will shrug that off, so I will continue.

I think Paye and Dayo will prove to be what we expected them to be. I think they will help the young secondary by lessening the time a QB has. I also think OL depth is a league-wide issue. This has been noted by several posters here, but nobody wants to acknowledge it. Vets are not available if they are any good. Risner keeps being mentioned, but nobody is signing him. I am not even hearing of him visiting any teams. Further, Ballard is holding onto OL guys to see who can make a jump. I think he is aware of the lack of quality depth, so he is throwing a lot of guys in there to see who might work. I know they are not the guys that you want, but they are who is available. Also, I think the youth movement is being done to rebuild for a sustained run in a year or two. It is very rare for a team with a rookie QB to be a contender for a SB, so why not go with youth, and add in vets if the QB pans out? That would make more sense than wasting those resources on a rebuilding team.

In summary, since I know you will probably get lost, I am sating the direction is right. We have a solid core of relatively young guys, and if that core works out just a little, then next year will be the chance to make a push with a new draft class, and a couple of solid vets added via free agency. The QB situation is what has to be fixed first.

[IndyNorm]

Originally Posted by Racehorse

No fan of any team is totally happy about all the moves made by their team. I know you will shrug that off, so I will continue.

I think Paye and Dayo will prove to be what we expected them to be. I think they will help the young secondary by lessening the time a QB has. I also think OL depth is a league-wide issue. This has been noted by several posters here, but nobody wants to acknowledge it. Vets are not available if they are any good. Risner keeps being mentioned, but nobody is signing him. I am not even hearing of him visiting any teams. Further, Ballard is holding onto OL guys to see who can make a jump. I think he is aware of the lack of quality depth, so he is throwing a lot of guys in there to see who might work. I know they are not the guys that you want, but they are who is available. Also, I think the youth movement is being done to rebuild for a sustained run in a year or two. It is very rare for a team with a rookie QB to be a contender for a SB, so why not go with youth, and add in vets if the QB pans out? That would make more sense than wasting those resources on a rebuilding team.

In summary, since I know you will probably get lost, I am sating the direction is right. We have a solid core of relatively young guys, and if that core works out just a little, then next year will be the chance to make a push with a new draft class, and a couple of solid vets added via free agency. The QB situation is what has to be fixed first.

No one's saying Ballard had to go w/ a Vet for OL depth (although that would have been nice). He had 8 draft picks after he took Freeland at his disposal. I'm pretty damn sure he could have used one of those to draft someone better than Fries, and I guarantee he could have found multiple IOLs better than what we have for depth there.

[IndyNorm]

Originally Posted by ukcolt

Biggest areas of concern for the 23 season for me are, the protection of our QB, is Raimann going to make the sophomore leap, and will the rest of the line come to play at the levels their talents have previously shown them to be capable of? Depth is of huge concern. How rough are the bumps in the road going to be for the rookie QB? I am reasonably content we will be ok in the passing game and in stopping the run, Richardson should help our own running game to at least appear to get a lot of yards, even if not through the RB's necessarily. It is the back end coverage i am most worried about and i can see us giving up a ton of passing yardage with long TD's due to broken coverages, because the guys just aren't experienced enough, and maybe in some instances, are not talented enough to match up with the starting WR's of the NFL.

I couldn't agree more, which is why I've been harping about Ballard not learning from his mistakes. The OL last year was a massive shit show of his making. To give him some credit he acknowledged this, but then all he does in the offseason to fix his giant fuck up is add a mid round draft pick as OT. And he did absolutely nothing to improve or add depth at IOL.

[Chromeburn]

What is the correct way to build a team?